


You know it to be true

by islndgurl777



Series: Star Wars OT Soulmarks [8]
Category: Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 11:45:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11161200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/islndgurl777/pseuds/islndgurl777
Summary: He feels Leia there as well, and despite her rioting emotions, she gets a clear message to him: It’s a trap!He sends back a quick shot of reassurance: I know it’s a trap. I’m coming for you anyways.





	You know it to be true

**Author's Note:**

> Here we have the final ESB fic in this series, Luke and Vader's confrontation in Cloud City.
> 
> Some dialogue borrowed from ESB, and as always, beta'd by Katie.

The feeling of  _ hurryhurryhurry _ intensifies while he’s still in hyperspace, but changes to an almost frantic screaming as he approaches the facility above Bespin. As Luke’s landing, the feeling suddenly stops, and he realizes it had been coming from Leia.

Alarmed, he opens his senses wider, trying to reestablish communication with her while at the same time searching for Han. If he’s with Leia, Luke should be able to feel him too, but there’s an empty feeling where his connection to Han should be.

No, that’s not quite true. It’s not an empty space, it’s just...muted, and he’s anxious to find out what that means.

He and R2-D2 enter the city cautiously and Luke keeps his sense open to the Force and to Han and Leia, trying to figure out what’s going on. “Artoo, something isn’t right here,” he says quietly as they explore the facility and come across no one. Artoo beeps lowly in the affirmative and they continue on. He prods at his connection with Leia, trying to figure out if she’s injured, or in shock because of whatever happened to Han. Either way, he needs to find her as quickly as he can. 

He peers around a corner and sees a bounty hunter. Artoo starts beeping questions at him, so he turns back to shush the droid. When he peers around the corner again, the bounty hunter starts shooting at him. That in and of itself seems like a good enough reason to follow him, but Luke senses he is needed elsewhere in the building, so he continues on through the empty hallways.

At last, he senses he’s in the right place so he pauses to peer around the corner. His suspicions are confirmed when stormtroopers start shooting at him. He feels Leia there as well, and despite her rioting emotions, she gets a clear message to him:  _ It’s a trap! _

He sends back a quick shot of reassurance:  _ I know it’s a trap. I’m coming for you anyways. _

He waits a few moments and follows after. Artoo tries to follow, but the door closes behind him, blocking the droid. Luke steps forward cautiously, lightsaber out and ready if he needs it.

The room he enters is dark, quiet, and there is a sense of cold foreboding here he cannot shake. Muted orange lights illuminate the room and he sees Vader standing across from him. “The Force is with you, young Skywalker,” he says, his artificial voice echoing around the chamber. “But you are not a Jedi yet.”

Luke reaches out with the Force in an attempt to grasp any information he can about this mystifying opponent. For three years he’s been running from the Emperor’s pet Sith, but they’ve never actually been close enough to have a conversation before. He moves closer, steps cautious as he stares up at Vader, using the Force to prod at his opponent’s consciousness.

Vader’s mind is heavily fortified, though Luke does feel a strange sense of amusement and something else...pride?... coming from him. Resigned to the fact that he won’t be learning anything new by probing the Sith’s mind, Luke lifts his lightsaber and ignites it. There’s a moment of pause when he feels something else from Vader--surprise?--before he lights his own weapon and they start their battle.

From the moment they begin, it’s clear Vader is the more skilled duelist. What’s unclear is the reason why he stays mostly on the defensive. He keeps moving backward, almost like he’s…luring Luke around the room. When Luke comes to the realization there is more to the trap than a confrontation with Vader, Vader immediately starts attacking with more aggressive moves.

Luke curses himself for letting his shields slip; he can’t afford to let Vader have any more of an advantage than he already does.

“You have learned much, young one,” Vader says as they continue the fight, and Luke feels a wave of  _ hate-jealousy-rage _ come from him through the Force, though strangely the feeling does not feel directed at Luke.

“You’ll find I’m full of surprises,” Luke says, going in for another hit. 

Vader avoids the hit easily and Luke rolls down the stairs. The Sith follows after him and says, “Your destiny lies with me, Skywalker. Obi-wan knew this to be true.” Resentment and a sense of superiority flow from him now, along with something else that confuses Luke.

Vader takes the opportunity to use the Force to shove him back into a hole in the ground. This, Luke feels, is the trap. He jumps up, grabbing onto some cables to stay off the ground and away from Vader.

“Impressive,” Vader says, slicing through some of the cables, his saber coming close to grazing Luke’s feet. “Most impressive.”

Luke drops down, distracting Vader with a tube of smoke as he finds and activates his lightsaber again.

The fight continues, ranging all around the room, neither able to fully subdue the other. Luke knows Vader could kill him in an instant, and the only reason he’s holding back is in hopes of capturing him. For what purpose, he can only guess, but it can’t be a good one.

The duel leads them throughout the facility, Vader destroying it as they go. He uses the Force to throw anything he can at Luke, breaking an outer window in the process. Luke is sucked out onto the outer platforms and separated from Vader for a time, but the Sith finds him again. This time, he doesn’t hold back. “You are beaten. It is useless to resist. Don’t let yourself be destroyed as Obi-wan did.”

Luke is too exhausted to put up much of a fight and Vader knows it. Still, he must try. He brings up his saber, hits Vader’s away, gathers his strength to leap up again. He gets in a lucky hit in Vader’s side, but Vader swings back hard and brings his saber down to slice off Luke’s hand.

Luke screams, clutching at his arm just below the cauterized wound. The pain is indescribable, flames radiating up his arm. He curls up, flinching away from Vader as he says quietly, “There is no escape. Don’t make me destroy you.”

Luke backs away along the platform, pain rolling over him in waves, desperate to get away. Vader moves forward, telling Luke how important he is, how they can work together and he can use his power to save the galaxy.

Rage courses through him. After everything he’s done, he expects Luke to join him? When he reaches the end of the platform, he turns back and spits out, “I’ll never join you!”

“If you only knew the power of the Dark Side,” Vader says. Then his voice turns considering. “Obi-wan never told you what happened to your father,” he states, as if he somehow knows exactly what Ben told him.

“He told me enough,” Luke spits back, slipping through the railing on the walkway to get further away. “He told me you killed him.”

“No,” Vader says. “I am your father.”

Dread, disbelief, horror fill him. “No. No. That’s not true,” he shakes his head. “That’s impossible!” His voice breaks because...

“Search your feelings. You know it to be true,” Vader says.

He looks down, crying. “No,” he repeats over and over again. It can’t possibly be true.

Vader tells him the Emperor has foreseen his death at Luke’s hands, then asks him again to join him in using their power to rule the galaxy. In between reeling at the revelation that Vader is his father and panicking over the ramifications of Vader capturing him, he keeps looking for a way to escape. He’s at the very edge of the platform, hovering dangerously over a long drop, but when Vader implores him to come with him and holds his hand out for Luke, it becomes too much. Better to risk dying in the fall than leaving with Vader. Luke lets go and drops into the abyss.

 

///

 

Leia’s coming for him; he can feel her. While he waits, hanging from the bottom of the Cloud City facility, he thinks over the conversation he had with Ben when they first met. He’d known his father, fought with him in the Clone Wars. He’d called Anakin one of the most gifted pilots and strongest users of the Force he’d ever seen. They’d been friends. Why would Ben lie to him about his father’s death at Vader’s hands?

Questions continue to flood his mind as the Falcon comes back to pick him up, as he’s led inside by a man he’s never met, as he embraces Leia and she leads him to the med bay. Were his feelings on the platform correct? Is Vader really his father? If so, what happened to him to make him turn to the Dark Side of the Force? And why would Ben tell him Anakin was dead when he wasn’t?

The Falcon shakes violently and Leia leaves him to see what’s going on. He feels Vader’s presence on a ship nearby, calling out to him, entreating him to come to him. At the same time, he can feel another Force presence battling Vader’s, faintly calling out to him. “Ben,” he realizes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He tries his best to block Vader out so he can contact Ben, but finds it difficult. He stands and heads to the cockpit. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he says again, but there’s no response. The hyperdrive activates and they are pulled away from the Empire to safety.

With Vader’s presence banished from his mind, he is finally able to focus on Leia. She senses the moment he tunes back into their soulbond and her icy emotionlessness. At his sharp look, she shakes her head and sends a message of  _ later _ to him. He nods to her and she introduces him to Lando Calrissian, an old friend of Han’s, apparently.

“Where is Han?” Luke asks quietly, uninjured hand straying to Han’s mark over his heart. It would be easy to pull his shirt to the side and check for himself, but if it’s the worst news, he’d rather hear it from Leia.

Chewie lets out a long-winded wail and Leia shoots a deadly look at Lando, burning rage echoing across her bond with Luke. Lando looks properly cowed by the look, and there’s a faint feeling of self-loathing coming from him through the Force.

Leia seems to sense this as well, because the look and feeling turn less severe. She lets out a heavy sigh and turns back to Luke. “He’s alive. Vader had him frozen in carbonite and handed him over to a bounty hunter to take to Jabba.” Their feelings sync up for a moment, a low level of fear--Jabba has Han--followed by a surprising relief--they are all alive, for the moment.

“What happened to you?” Leia asks, gesturing to his amputated limb. Chewie lets out a low growl at seeing this and starts tugging him back toward the med bay, Leia following behind.

There are so many things he could say, he  _ wants _ to say, but they have to keep their priorities straight. And he’d like to verify his revelations with Ben before he says anything to his soulmates. He settles on, “I fought Vader.”

Chewie wails again, his grip on Luke’s arm tightening as he settles the man on the bed and starts hooking him up to some of the machines.  _ Foolish boy _ , he admonishes.

Leia shudders and he feels the ripples of her fear across their bond. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

Luke lets out a mirthless laugh. “No, he needs me alive.”

“Why?” Leia asks, incredulous.

Luke lets out a long breath. “The Emperor has foreseen his own death at my hands. He and Vader want to turn me to the Dark Side to prevent that.”

Leia’s eyebrows shoot up. She doesn’t say anything, but he can feel her absolute certainty in his allegiance and it warms him.

“I know. It’s lucky Vader doesn’t, or he might have killed me.” Or would he? Would Vader really kill his own son? Luke’s accessed every resource available to the Alliance to find out more about his father since he joined the Rebellion. Anakin Skywalker, the Hero with No Fear, great Jedi General of the Clone Wars, would never kill an innocent person.

But Vader? 

Luke sighs. He really needs to talk to Ben to find the answers to his burning questions, but he can feel the man is unavailable to him in the Force. Frustration builds, but he takes a breath and pushes it away.

He lets it out slowly and takes another breath to clear his head. They got away from Vader. His answers can wait; there’s something else that can’t.

He focuses back in and asks Leia, “What do we know about the bounty hunter who took Han?”

 

///

 

Once they meet back up with the Rebel fleet, Luke, Leia, and Chewie spend hours coming up with and shooting down plans to rescue Han. They bring Lando in once Leia’s fury at his betrayal cools from a boil to a simmer.

They finalize their plans. Leia snarls as she’s told she needs to stay behind for a while; Lando legitimately fears for his life for a short period of time, Chewie chuckles and puffs his chest out, proud at Leia’s minor display of violence, and Luke blanches and suddenly realizes he has missed something happening between his soulmates. In the end, she realizes she’s needed more with the Alliance for the time being, but makes it very clear that she will be ready when their plan is put into action.

The next day, Lando and Chewie take the Falcon to the most likely place they’ll find Han: Tatooine. Luke stands next to Leia at the window of the ship, staring out at endless space, too many thoughts running through his head for him to focus on any one thing. He’s got a soulmate to rescue, another one he needs to keep safe, and answers to find. Something--the Force--tells him it will be a while before he has closure of any kind.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, kudos-ing, bookmarking, and subscribing! It's all motivation to keep me writing!
> 
> I am currently working on the interlude between ESB and RotJ. My hope is to get it done this week and start on the RotJ fics.


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